Plug N Play errors after firmware updates

After using the Life-cycle controller on a Dell R710 I got this error. Also the server would not boot as it could not find the RAID controller.

The fix was to disable the ROM option, highlighted below for all non on-board Broadcom NICs. In my case there where eight to configure as there where 2 quad port PCI-e cards.

iSCSI Throughput and SMB signing

Here is an interesting article on the effects of SBM signing on iSCSI targets.

Basically it involves, disabling SMB signing on client and server communications to speed up network throughput.


http://www.thatcouldbeaproblem.com/?p=72

Remove the Exchange 2010 default Mailbox store

The First database contains the SystemMailboxes which are the Arbitration mailbox(es).

We have to move these system mailboxes to another database before of remove the Default Database.

1. Find the Arbitration Mailbox using the Exchange MAnagement Shell (EMS):

Get-Mailbox | Where {$_.Name -like "Discovery*" } | ft Name

You might need to move the Federation Mailbox also...

Get-Mailbox -Arbitration | ft Name

2. Now create a new move request in order to move the system mailboxes to another mailbox database:

New-MoveRequest -Identity "SystemMailbox{yourGUID}" -TargetDatabase "dbxxxx" 

New-MoveRequest -Identity "DiscoverySearchMailbox{yourGUID}" -TargetDatabase "dbxxxx"  

New-MoveRequest -Identity "FederatedMail{yourGUID}" -TargetDatabase "dbxxxx"

3. Verify whether the move request completed:

Get-MoveRequest

4. Now remove the move request

Remove-MoveRequest -Identity "the name of the request like Microsoft Exchange Approval Assistant"

Or clear the lot...

Get-MoveRequest | Remove-MoveRequest 

Edit: For Exchange 2016 you can use these commands:

Get-Mailbox -Arbitration | New-MoveRequest -TargetDatabase "dbxxxxxxx"
Get-Mailbox | Where {$_.Name -like "Discovery*" } | New-MoveRequest -TargetDatabase "dbxxxxxxx"
Get-Mailbox -Database "Mailbox Database Old" -AuditLog | New-MoveRequest -TargetDatabase "dbxxxxxxx"
Get-Mailbox -Database "Mailbox Database Old" | New-MoveRequest -TargetDatabase "dbxxxxxxx"

ESXi Image builder infommation

http://alexander.walden.com.au/2012/01/18/making-your-own-esxi-5-installation-image/

ESXi image builder GUI

http://v-front.blogspot.de/p/esxi-customizer.html

ESXi image builder GUI

http://esxi-customizer.v-front.de/

ESXi 5 EqualLogic best practices.

If you are using Raw Device Mapped (RDM) disks in your VM's, make sure the pathing for that is changed to RR and IOPs 3 as well.  (MEM would also set this connections up properly as well)

Other common tweaks are disable DelayedACK  (its in the iSCSI initiator properties) and disable Large Receive Offload (LRO)

Within VMware, the following command will query the current LRO value.

# esxcfg-advcfg -g /Net/TcpipDefLROEnabled

To set the LRO value to zero (disabled):

# esxcfg-advcfg -s 0 /Net/TcpipDefLROEnabled

NOTE: a server reboot is required.

Info on changing LRO in the Guest network.

docwiki.cisco.com/.../Disable_LRO

ESXI v5.0 should also have the Login Timeout changed to 60 seconds.  (default is 5).  However, you have to be at build 514841 or better.  

See VMware KB 2007680 kb.vmware.com/.../2007680

One more common enhancement that gets missed often is creating a virtualized SCSI adapter for each VMDK (or RDM) in each VM.  (Up to 4x controllers)     If you look in the VM settings, each VMDK/RDM shows a "Virtual node"  

It will say 0:0, for first drive, then 0:1, 0:2, etc...   Shutdown the VM, change the other VMDK/RDMs from 0:1 to 1:0, then 0:2 to 2:0 and so on.   This will tell ESX to create new SCSI controllers for each disk.  Really helps with Exchange/SQL/Sharepoint.   Things that have databases and logs or fileservers that have multiple VMDKs/RDMs

*************************************************************************************

*** Script to change EQL volumes to RR and set the IOPs to 3 in ESXi v5.0. ****

*************************************************************************************

This is a script you can run to set all EQL volumes to Round Robin and set the IOPs value to 3.  (Datastores and RDMs)

#esxcli storage nmp satp set --default-psp=VMW_PSP_RR --satp=VMW_SATP_EQL ; for i in `esxcli storage nmp device list | grep EQLOGIC|awk '{print $7}'|sed 's/(//g'|sed 's/)//g'` ; do esxcli storage nmp device set -d $i --psp=VMW_PSP_RR ; esxcli storage nmp psp roundrobin deviceconfig set -d $i -I 3 -t iops ; done

After you run the script you should verify that the changes took effect.

#esxcli storage nmp device list

Equallogic ASM/ME - Replication partner Not Available

ASM/ME reports Replication Partner Not Available. Even though manual replication works.

Issue was caused by the inability to access the VSS-CONTROL LUN on the replication partner. In my case the vssadmin username and password where correctly specified but the iSCSI initiator refused the login to the VSS LUN. The workaround is to set the VSS access at the group level to unrestricted while Dell investigate.


UPDATE. - Workaround from Dell PS.

Highlight the VSS-Control Volume and click connect you get an Advance button, Click it and you will get a pop up window and you should see your chap credentials there.
Enter you chap Credentials on both the hosts and that should resolve the issue.